Wait a minute…the fourth wise man? I may be Jewish, but I’m pretty sure (mostly from Monty Python’s “Life of Brian”, and more recently from “The Nativity”) that the account of the magi visiting baby Jesus only has three wise men.But in a recent advertisement for energy drink Red Bull, the fourth wise man was present, and drinking a can of Red Bull of course. And there’s nothing like “sacred family sacrilege” to make Italian priests mad.According to Reuters, Father Marco Damanti, from Sicily, has persuaded soft drinks company Red Bull to withdraw an advertisement setting its product in a nativity scene on the grounds it is disrespectful to Christianity and denounced the commercial as “a blasphemous act.”

The advert depicted four wise men, instead of three, visiting Mary and the Baby Jesus in Bethlehem. The fourth wise man bore a can of the soft drink. “The image of the sacred family has been represented in a sacrilegious way,” Father Damanti told Corriere della Sera. “Whatever the ironic intentions of Red Bull, the advert pokes fun at the nativity, and at Christian sensitivity.” The priest also objected to the company’s slogan, “Red Bull gives you wings,” said by angels in the animated advert.